By Yusuf Adua & Jide Afolabi
According to Roberto Michells, the father of “the iron law of oligarchy”, all complex organizations, regardless of how democratic they are when started, eventually develop into oligarchies. If this theory is to be directly translated to the development in the pacesetter state, it is safe to say that all administrations tend to be the same no matter how pleasant they looked when the governance was still at the nursery stage.
Though Governor Seyi Makinde was the closest messiah to pull Oyo people out of what they saw as high-handedness by Late Governor Abiola Ajimobi and his two-term tenure, one thing was an open secret. That GSM and his party would have to revitalize the security system was definitely not one of their priorities, the truth that the security architecture was 60% functional is not up for debate.
Two years down the line, aside from the fact that national security is being threatened, the Oyo state security system is in the bondage of merciless administrative kidnapping.
Promising politician and lover of the masses, Rt Honourable Temitope Olatoye Sugar died with his vigour having been brutally marshalled on the 2019 gubernatorial Election Day, but to be brutally honest, one will labour before one can name another martyr that left this world in that manner during the constituted authority’s reign.
And here we are; a government that brimmed with hope for immense economic, social and infrastructural development is now one of the states in Nigeria where inhabitants should neither doze nor sleep to get their lives and properties secured.
A basket full of hulhullabaloos has been clamoured to call the attention of the always-attentive Executive Governor of Oyo state, Governor Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde to the consistent massacre of the people he governs and the conspicuous threat that is seeming to swallow the stupefied security agencies of Oyo state in general.
From Mrs. Olayemi Odetomi (wife of a former commissioner of chieftaincy affairs) who was killed few hours ago to our own Titus Badejo Eja nla; a lively germ to the Igangan bloodbath, to the unknown gunmen ravaging every corner of Oyo state, security has just turned to curiosity in the state.
What is playing out in the security framework of the state is dividing opinions across party lines; GSM’s apologists are saying that his government has made provisions for the NPF, NSCDC, AMOTEKUN, VGN to function at their utmost best while the opposition feels that Mr. Governor is not doing enough administratively.
Nigeria is not safe too, this is because Nigeria literally is never safe. Anybody born within the last decade wouldn’t escape listening to one life-threatening news on the radio or watching how people’s right to life is being disposed of on the TV, but this is Oyo state where the ruling party was tagged to be a party known to be conservative and Mr. Governor trying to push that shove out, but unfortunately, nothing seems to be working. it’s looking like the state is now a soft spot for the wrong side of breaking news.
The policing system is a centralized structure but that’s exactly how it was when Governor Ajimobi was coasting home with success security-wise and Mr. Governor has one of the most respected capable hands in the country, he appointed Fatai Owoseni, former Commissioner of Police in Lagos and Benue States as his Special Adviser on security matters but it is evident that all these measures put in place by the Chief Security Officer in Oyo state don’t seem to have had any direct positive effect on the alarming security situation in the state.
A critical look at the major strikes that occurred in Igangan, Ibarapa North local government, Iseyin, Oyo town, Ibadan, and other parts of the state will avail any observer the opportunity to adduce that the alarming state of insecurity in the state has made residents of Oyo state unhappy, on their toes and paranoid regardless of how people-oriented Mr. Governor runs his government.
Ask anybody who was in Oyo state between 2011 and 2019, they will tell you that that the pacesetter state and its people are beginning to reek of anxiety and paranoia all in the name of insecurity, vandalism, and life-threatening reports of how bandits, rouges, and thugs of different ethnic groups have taken advantage of Oyo state present predicament to front and carry out their barbaric and inhumane agenda which was not the case eight years before.
Fuji Maestro, King Wasiu Ayinde when launching a renaissance and new wave of his Fuji music; he said “the time is now, new Fuji vibes”. The time is now, Governor Seyi Makinde, we demand a complete package or a new security framework.
Importantly so, we have come to solicit with GSM to walk a talk made by President Muhammadu Buhari, probably, speaking to the vandalisers in the language they understand will change the alarming scheme of things.
It would have been positively affective if the governor’s stand that the people terrorizing Oyo state are those who have no liking for his administration if we have seen any sort of improvement lately. The thought that some miscreants are making a political discombobulation of his administration will no more be allowed here; people are losing their lives and property as a matter of hours.
We do not doubt the abilities of the people’s governor, our skepticism lies in the fact that it looks like Mr. Governor hasn’t even moved the stone from where the previous administration happily or hopelessly left it, having said that, if the stone is not moved, it should not be shifted backwards. Members of his cabinet who are vast in all spheres of state and national development should join hands with him in mapping out a killer strategy that will put an end to this menaces. The best-governed state is the most well-defended.
The maintenance of law and order in a state is not a UFC fight between the federal and state government. Whether GSM’s supporters like it or not, every happening in and around Oyo drops on his table. Omo Oyo are tired of hearing that the Oyo state security system is appalling because national security is not serene. Let all defendants forget the political stunt and speak with one voice which is our focal point in this piece that Mr governor should address the stuntmen or ” ungun known men” in the language they will understand.
Kudos to the dead, the APC-led administration in the state found a way to silence road transport workers and their shenanigans for eight years. So far, the PMS ruckus has been devastating, their recent outbursts have brought tears and wailings to the eyes of the Oyo people the governor wishes to lead well because of the loss of lives and properties arising from their sheer display of insubordination, recklessness, and power.
Without equivocation, Governor Ajimobi was able to reduce the number of properties ruined and casualties with stern high-handedness much to his credit even when he had failings in order areas. One will pardon him because there has never been a perfect government anywhere and when there’s life, there’s certainly hope for a better tomorrow, the present administration is not giving us that hope but rather inversely folding its arms and allowing our lives to be taken mercilessly.
We want an Oyo state with a thriving economy, where socio-cultural activities will give us more international recognition, where humanitarian Acts will not be politicized, where proper security of lives and properties will be credible, plausible, commendable, visible, feasible, and emulatable, we are not sure if Governor Seyi Makinde can give us that and if he can, the time is now for him to prove it.